NASA WELCOMES EUROPEAN SPACE STATION MODULE

06.02.06

Katherine Trinidad
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-3749

Tracy Young
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
321-867-2468

Kylie Clem
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-8260

RELEASE: 06-232

NASA WELCOMES EUROPEAN SPACE STATION MODULE

NASA is celebrating the arrival of an important component to the
International Space Station, the Columbus research laboratory.
Columbus is the European Space Agency's primary contribution to the
station. It arrived at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla., Tuesday
from Germany. Over the past week, it was unloaded from its transport
aircraft and taken to its temporary home in Kennedy's Space Station
Processing Facility, where it will be prepared for launch. It was
welcomed Friday in a ceremony attended by guests from both sides of
the Atlantic.

Columbus will expand the research facilities of the station, providing
researchers the ability to conduct a variety of experiments in the
area of life, physical and materials sciences. It was manufactured by
the European Aeronautic Defence and Space (EADS) company in Bremen,
Germany, and Alcatel Alenia Space in Turin, Italy. It will launch
aboard the space shuttle, on the seventh of the shuttle's upcoming
missions to the station.

"The arrival of Columbus is a major milestone in moving forward to
complete the station," said Michael Suffredini, NASA's space station
program manager. "The delivery of Columbus to Kennedy to begin
processing for flight signifies the strong international partnership
and planning required for the operation of the station."

The module has the capability to hold up to 10 payload facility racks
of experiments. Each rack provides independent controls for power and
cooling and communication links to researchers on Earth. In addition,
four exterior mounting platforms will enable the station crew to
conduct experiments outside the module.

The operations center for the Columbus laboratory is located in
Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany, and will serve as the primary control
center for the science to be performed in the laboratory.

Video highlights of the Columbus arrival activities will air this
afternoon on the NASA TV Video File segment on the Media Channel
(Program 103).

NASA TV's Public, Education and Media channels are available on an
MPEG-2 digital C-band signal accessed via satellite AMC-6, at 72
degrees west longitude, transponder 17C, 4040 MHz, vertical
polarization. In Alaska and Hawaii, they are on AMC-7 at 237 degrees
west longitude, transponder 18C, at 4060 MHz, horizontal
polarization. For digital downlink information and links to streaming
video, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For photos of the Columbus module, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/multimedia/Columbus_gallery.html

For information about Columbus and the International Space Station,
visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station


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Jacques :-)

www.spacepatches.nl


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